BermudaBound2014

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

As you know, I'm not a Lido fan (or any buffet) but some of these specials sound ALMOST good enough to tempt me there. Although, looking at your menus for MDR it seems many (most?) of them are on offer there as well.

 

Come to the other side. It’s hot and fresh over here 😉 
 

Here is tonight’s lido invitation and this dish is on the mdr menu (above). I don’t think the menus are much different at all. 

The Ilikai hasn’t changed a bit other than the happy hour pricing being just a weeee bit more than I remember.

After graduating High school I got on a plane (all by myself, never had been on a plane before) and moved to Waikiki where I worked on a charter fishing vessel for a few years before starting college. Just about gave my parents a heart attack. My mom always said “I raised her to be independent but not this damn independent.” Apparently I was doing gap years before it socially accepted practice. 
 

My goal today is to just explore my old stomping grounds to see how much things have changed in over 30 years. 
 

I walked from the ship to the Ilikai near Honolulu yacht harbor. We used to do happy hour here.  Very easy 3.5 mile walk with the detour through the Ala Moana beach park. Weather is quite lovely. Not too hot with a stiff breeze. Currently chilling with a cocktail and waiting for a 10 min shower to pass.

Figured I might as well post the menus and dailies while I’m thinking about it and have 5G.

Tonight’s dinner- a huge plate of freshly stir fried veggies because I’m detoxing from booze and unhealthy food (until tomorrow haha).
 

You’ll never get anything this fresh or hot in the MDR and it took all of 5 minutes 😉 

Of course- I know many of you really enjoy a more formal dining experience where you are waited on. The lido certainly isn’t for everyone, but I do think the food here is fresher, hotter, and healthier than the MDR  IF you order right. They have been doing a great job  offering a different freshly grilled fish every night and the chop chop salad has everything this girl could ever want for dinner. 
 

Look at this plate of hot healthy goodness…

@SonuvaBeach wow Jim- you captured a spy hop and I missed that entirely!!! Bravo again 🙂

Today I elected to do the Hollywood in the movies tour offered by HAL to use up some onboard credit.

Side note- most of us paid $179 for this tour. It almost doubled in price to $279 in October. It was likely worth $179 (even though the tour guide was a bit a dufus for my taste), but there is no way this tour is worth $279. Hire a private guide for the day. All the spots on the movie tour are well known and open to the public.

The scenery was beautiful and the weather cooperated; even in Princeville and Hanalei; which are almost always a bit 

misty. 

There are literally 100s of movies filmed on Kauai. On this tour they would show a movie video clip on the van and then take you the exact location where that clip was filmed.
 

We saw Jurassic Park, fantasy island, Raiders of the lost ark, Gillian’s Island, Blue Hawaii, South Pacific, and Donovan’s Reef to name a few….

As I’ve mentioned, we have an amazing roll call and there were about 60 of us who elected to go on the 11:30 pacific whale watch. Some folks took cabs, some Ubers, some rented cars, a group of about 15 of us walked to the bus, but we all met on the boat for a fantastic whale watch experience.
 

It’s hard to go wrong during whale soup time, but we had quite the show-

-4 different sets of mom/calf/escort.

- one full out adult breach 

- multiple calf pickle breaches

-3 peduncle throws

- a 5 whale competition pod. 

- 1 mugging (where the whales got so close we had to turn off the engines.)

I believe everyone was very happy with the experience and since I had talked it up a great deal I was thrilled the whales cooperated. 
 

Unfortunately I only took whale video and cruise critic doesn’t like that format, but here’s a few shots of most of our group at the harbor
 

Other than accidentally flashing the tug boat crew and a near miss with my phone, it was an excellent day on Maui. I’m excited to return after the cruise. 

Let’s see if I can catch up yesterday. The morning started with a little excitement. I got up super early to watch sail into Maui. Took a shower, walked out of the bathroom and was promptly greeted by these two fellows in a tug boat. Eye level. 25 feet from my window. I’m sure my cabin was the only one with the blinds wide open and lights on. Whoopsie- 

I’m not sure if this Happens every cruise but we keep getting invitations via messenger in the app. 
 

These two were for lido dinners and also an invite to an open bridge for viewing.

Kauai port shopping map. There is a free trolly to take you to a strip mall type place that’s a few blocks away. I don’t believe it goes into to town but someone can correct me if I’m wrong. 
 

Todays daily (Kauai) 

29 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Maybe we should move our conversations for 2025 to existing  Roll Call for that cruise.  I very much appreciate reading and seeing comments from all the folks on the current cruise but I don't want to sidetrack them.  Thanks for your commentary and photos @canadianbear  

 

Thanks! It’s easy to derail me :). I’m also on the 2025 so if you have specific questions and tag me I’ll be sure to answer directly in the 2025 roll call also 🙂

I do need to catch up. I will do that in a bit. The Last few days have been spectacular.
 

In the meantime, I do want to post the menus and planner for those that asked. 
 

Tonight’s menu-

@ORTravelGal did you see the solo cabin photos I posted? I normally do balconies too but I have been very happy with this cabin, tremendous about of floor space.

5 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

They are quite aware of the active cruise critic posters and they read this board.  If there is any update I will let you know. 

Yea- I’m pretty sure I’ve been ousted. 

Todays daily planner

Tonight’s dinner menu for my new friends 🙂- again please accept my apologies for not realizing everyone couldn’t see these in the app. 

Last nights lido menu ..most things on the mdr are also found at the lido and you can get fresh grilled protein and fresh stir fried veggies. Right off the grill sizzling hot 🙂

It had been six days since we saw land, and Hilo was a welcome site. My sister has a condo in Kona, and I’ve spent a fair bit of time on the big island so no tour planned.

Started the day with tai chi. The instructor is adorable and a hoot. I’ll post his name later because I want to get the spelling right. He is also the picket ball master. He has the perfect job for his personality.

I decided to take the free shuttle to the farmers market. From there I walked to rainbow Falls. I’m guessing it was less than 3 miles, but it was all uphill, so take that into account if you plan to make the journey by foot. Spent some relaxed time at the falls just letting all my senses absorb the energy. Hawaii really is different than the mainland. From its core. 

I headed back to the ship by Uber ($15) because I much prefer walking uphill to walking down. 

While i was at the falls I ran into another new lifetime friend. She was on a tour. I was on foot.  We snapped a selfie I will cherish. Every single person I have spent time with onboard has been a gem. 

Back onboard I had a salad for lunch. The salads are exceptional. They had prime rib on both the mdr and lido dinner menu so that was dinner. It was excellent.

I spent some time at sail away watching several different groups of whales off the starboard side. Several pickle breaches from a calf. Surprisingly, they were here all day which is a bit unusual for the hill area.

This evening was a comic. He made me laugh couple times. Funny side story- few weeks ago we were on a carnival ship. Carnival does comedy right (6 different performers offering 12 different shows in a one week time period). Anyway, one of the comics poked fun of the comedy offered on HAL and his stereotype proved bang on. Let’s just say this was a very clean comedy show and I believe most of the audience preferred this style.

So a Hilo summary for those without tours - there is a free shuttle to the farmers market. From there you can walk to rainbow falls. I just saved you $129 pp 🙂

To get back to the ship the free shuttle does its last return at 11:45 ( this company does an island tour at noon. The ship charges $149 but they will sell you direct for $60). If you miss the free shuttle, the farmers market itself has a free small van shuttle that runs on the half hour until 1:00. 

After 1:00 the city bus is free and picks up from the farmers market area on the 15s. It drops you off just outside of the pier so a little walking is involved w this option. Ride share will be less than $15 from town and can drive right up to the ship. 
 

Ahhh… my apologies for the confusion. Hubby is probably logged in as me back home. Here is a menu for tonight. I’ll try to remember to grab them for you. 

27 minutes ago, Overhead Fred said:

 I cannot find a way to see specific menus for any of HAL's ongoing sailings. If anyone knows how, please enlighten me 🙂

I believe that is your problem. Can someone please help this gentleman get to the Koningsdam menus in the app? 
 

You can see our exact menu in the app. Be sure to click on Koningsdam. It is not generic (at least it wasn’t generic the last several sailings). You have to navigate to Koningsdam. 
 

Im not on ship wifi or I’d post todays menu for you to cross reference. My husband can see the menu before I do because he is awake on east coast time :).

Todays daily before I forget 

The observatory on top of Mauna Kea is clearly visible this morning. And I’m seeing some whale action in the distance, nothing like we will see tomorrow on Maui but they are around.

1 hour ago, Overhead Fred said:

If somebody onboard has the chance, could you post some menus? Since this is a legendary cruise, I am curious to see if the MDR offerings are any different than "normal".

 

Thanks!

You can see our menus right from your app at home. Just download the app and go to our daily menus. They have everything posted. Let us know if you can’t find them 

@SonuvaBeach As soon as i saw Silvers question I had a feeling you would be the one to  have caught it on camera!!  bravo!! 
 

21 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

We have seen the green flash many times in our crusing days with HAL, farther south than you are right now, but never in Hawaii, so consider your sightings a huge bonus!

I have seen the green flash many times in Maui so it’s not that rare here, but always a bonus 🙂